Thank People By Boosting Their Reputation

vBulletin supports "reputation". If somebody helps you here, boost their reputation (by clicking the little icon under their user details). It's a little way of thanking them. :smile:

You can also decrease their reputation, but that should be reserved for spammers and trolls, I think. Besides, I'm not sure, but I think people can see who has changed their reputation, so they could retaliate. :wink:

Good question. I haven't found a way to do it yet. The best thing I've come up with is going to the Member List and sorting by Reputation. You can't see any values, but you can see their rankings.

I'm an admin on another vBulletin board, so I'll have to see what happens there. We don't have Reputation enabled there, but I may be able to see where the counts are stored. I think the admin can define Reputation levels (similar to post count levels), but I'm not sure.

I figured this out. Just go to Member list and the arange them by rep. Mine blows:gasp:

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What do you mean yours blows? You are up there. I am not sure the rep thing means much anyway. The only thing you can do is arrange them in the memberlist? That is kinda lame, need to add more features or something.

I am not sure the rep thing means much anyway. The only thing you can do is arrange them in the memberlist? That is kinda lame, need to add more features or something.

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Reputation is kind of like feedback on eBay. For each post somebody makes, you can rate it positively or negatively (or leave it alone, of course). If somebody helps you, give their rep a boost. If somebody says something particularly insightful, give their rep a boost. If somebody helps you by pointing you to another post that helps you, give both people's reps a boost. Presumably, the higher somebody's reputation, the more helpful that person has been.

I think it's an attempt to allow ranking users based on something other than post count. (A high post count doesn't necessarily mean somebody's been helpful.) Of course, reputation could turn into a popularity contest if "popular" members get boosts and "unpopular" members take hits. Even worse, the numbers could be gamed by people agreeing to vote each other's posts higher (and, even worse, other people's posts lower).

I suggested using it with the hope that people wouldn't do those things, of course (which is why I suggested only giving negative reputation for spammers and trolls).

And, yes, it could be better. :smile: For example, I think that showing reputation counts on the Member List would be useful and encourage using it more. I also think a user should be able to see which posts have gotten positive and negative feedback and the associated comments (but not the name of the person giving the feedback, of course).

First, you aren't actually rating people directly. You're rating their posts, but you can theoretically vote on each post they've made.

As for accessing it from the Q, I have no idea. I don't do much forum reading on the Q (I'm very nearsighted and the Pocket IE font is too small even at maximum zoom). Give it a try and let us know what happens. :wink: